Special prosecutor needed for UCP probe
On Sunday, the RCMP visited Alberta Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer, evidently approaching him as an individual — not as boss of the whole justice system — who might have personal knowledge of possible election fraud and funding violations in his party’s leadership campaign.
I’ve never heard of anything quite like that in Alberta before, and my memory of misadventure goes back to 1978.
It has often been colourful. For instance, there was the Progressive Conservative solicitor general who resigned in 1983 after police discovered him in a government car with a prostitute.
Now, I’m not in any way comparing that personal fiasco to Schweitzer’s situation, or to Premier Jason Kenney as the alleged beneficiary of the “kamikaze candidate” scheme.
But that cabinet minister of old, although he claimed to be investigating prostitution, did not expect to investigate himself. Neither should Schweitzer be in charge of anything to do with the current investigation now that it has touched him personally, however innocently.
It is absolutely imperative the government appoint a special prosecutor, preferably from outside the province, to oversee the RCMP investigations.
You’d think both Schweitzer and Kenney would want that protective shield of convincing independence.
Instead, they keep claiming the RCMP will conduct a genuinely independent investigation devoid of political tinkering.
But after that 30-minute police chat with the minister in charge of justice, along with an astonishing $71,000 in fines levied so far by the election commissioner, this matter is now in a league of its own.
We don’t know what the Mounties asked Schweitzer about, and he won’t say. But it likely involves his own concern — along with fellow Kenney opponent Brian Jean — of possible irregularities on leadership voting day, Oct. 28, 2017.
Schweitzer and Jean wanted the voting paused until the matter was resolved. They were denied by the United Conservative Party. As expected, Kenney won by a mile.
It was subsequently confirmed that email addresses fraudulently attached to party memberships were used to cast votes.
On Tuesday, Opposition Leader Rachel Notley asked Schweitzer if, after meeting with the RCMP, he briefed Kenney on what was said.
Schweitzer didn’t answer. Instead, he said: “We respect the independence of the RCMP. The foundation of our justice system is to have that independent process.
“As I’ve said publicly, the RCMP reached out to me. I met with them in my personal capacity. I am not under investigation. I was happy to assist them with their investigation. I answered their questions fully.”
Nice to know the justice minister isn’t a suspect.
Government House Leader Jason Nixon backed up Schweitzer.
“Again, we have the Opposition focused on fear and smear, not focused on government policy, asking about internal party matters in this place. It’s all that the Opposition has, and it’s why they ended up on (that) side of the House.”
Nixon is certainly right about the NDP’s scattershot smear tactics in the election campaign. But in this case, facts are already established and the RCMP is on the job.
Does that mean the police are part of the smear? And would the government just bury this scandal because it involves “internal party matters?”
Special prosecutors are nothing new in Alberta when law and politics collide.
One was appointed in 2014, when then-PC premier Alison Redford was discovered to have taken flights on government aircraft with her daughter.
A report said flight manifests were falsified with the names of fictitious passengers — “ghost riders in the sky,” in the memorable phrase of then-columnist Paula Simons — to ensure lots of elbow room.
Redford ended up resigning over the flights and other problems. Months later, the RCMP closed the file without charges.
In 2000, a special prosecutor was assigned to the case of Angie Klein-Marcia, daughter of then-premier Ralph Klein. She faced charges over disputes with her husband, who had already been jailed twice for assaulting her.
In that sad case the special prosecutor was assigned to avert any hint of special treatment from the premier.
The whole idea of special prosecutors is to protect police and judicial independence, and the public’s faith in it. In today’s uproar, appointing a special outside prosecutor is such a slamdunk that we are fully entitled to wonder why they won’t.